The power of choice
Transformative journeys through the Rupantaran programme
Rautahat, Nepal: It's close to noon when the air along this scenic stretch of road in Rajdevi Municipality in Rautahat District fills with the sound of sizzling oil. The source? A small snack shop run by 16-year-old Antima Kumari Pandit.
Antima runs her business out of a modest little roadside hut, selling samosas and other varieties of fried, savoury items. Her hands move deftly as she prepares the dough and fillings, her face a mask of concentration.
Antima first had the idea for the business last year when she had taken part in the Rupantaran life skills programme. Developed by UNICEF and UNFPA, in collaboration with the Government of Nepal, and being implemented with support from partners such as David Beckham's 7 Fund for UNICEF, the Rupantaran package is aimed at providing adolescents between 10 to 19 years of age the information and skills they need to navigate society and plan for their futures.
The package includes a mix of social and financial skills training and covers a wide range of topics - including communication, negotiation, self-assessment and resource identification for goal attainment, physical and mental well-being, among others – that are taught by locally based facilitators or peer educators over the course of 21 weeks.
Antima, the eldest of seven siblings, had dropped out after grade five because her family’s financial situation was so dire. She had been staying home, helping her parents take care of her siblings when she was approached by a Rupantaran facilitator with an invitation to join the sessions. Having long felt aimless, she says she was curious about what the opportunity entailed and decided to give it a shot.
That decision turned things around for her.
As she went through the Rupantaran sessions, Antima was starting to get excited about what she was learning, particularly the module on economic empowerment and entrepreneurship.
UNICEF Nepal/2023/LPNgakhusi
“My parents used to own a small eatery, and I had grown up watching my father make these dishes, even helped him," she says. "I felt that this was something I could do, too.”
And so, after completing the Rupantaran course, Antima applied for a seed fund to start her business and, following an interview, was among those selected to receive a sum of NPR 10,000 (approx. USD 75). With the money in hand and the financial skills she had picked up in the Rupantaran session, the snack shop was soon up and running.
Today, Antima says she earns around NPR 700 (approx. USD 5.24) a day. While she is glad that this allows her to contribute to the family’s income, it is being able to pay for her younger siblings’ education, especially that of her little sister, that brings her the most joy.
UNICEF Nepal/2023/LPNgakhusi
“My parents couldn’t afford to send us to school, my older sisters are already married,” she says. “But my younger ones still have a chance.”
A different future
While the Rupantaran programme places a strong emphasis on education, and as a first priority, encourages participating adolescents to continue or resume formal schooling after graduating, it also recognizes that this option might not be viable for all – especially older adolescents who might struggle to transition to classrooms with much younger counterparts.
In these cases, especially when they demonstrate an interest and aptitude for entrepreneurship, the young people are guided accordingly, and provided the skills-building and mentoring support they need to establish and sustain micro-enterprises of their choice.
Ruby Kumari Ram, a Rajdevi local herself and one of the Rupantaran facilitators, says that for many of these girls who come from marginalized communities, the Rupantaran class represents the only opportunity they might have to choose a different future for themselves than the one their families or society has chosen for them. That gradual broadening of their horizons, beyond the narrow, limited prospects that they are otherwise forced to live with – that is the beauty of Rupantaran in Ruby’s opinion.
UNICEF Nepal/2023/RUpadhayay
“It makes me very happy to play a part in helping them understand themselves better, set their goals, and make their own choices in life,” Ruby says.
In the past four years, over 93,452 adolescents have been reached through the radio version of the Rupantaran programme, and 8,473 adolescents through school and community-based sessions.
